COLONEL. 'Do you deny that it is yours, Amy?' Amy has no answer to
this. 'Is it unreasonable, Steve, to ask you when my daughter, with
whom you profess to be unacquainted, gave you that token of her
esteem?'

STEVE, helpless, 'Alice.'

COLONEL. 'What has Alice to do with it?'

AMY, to the rescue, 'Nothing, nothing, I swear.'

COLONEL. 'Has there been something going on that I don't understand?
Are you in it, Alice, as well as they? Why has Steve been staring at
you so?'

AMY, knowing so well that she alone can put this matter right,
'Mother, don't answer.'

STEVE. 'If I could see Alice alone for a moment, Colonel--'

ALICE. 'Yes.'

COLONEL. 'No. Good heavens, what are you all concealing? Is Amy--my
Amy--your elderly lady, Steve? Was that some tasteful little joke you
were playing on your old friend, her father?'

STEVE. 'Colonel, I--'

AMY, preparing for the great sacrifice, 'I forbid him to speak.'